Former Villanova Basketball Star Will Sheridan: "I'm Gay"

He's an athlete, a former Division I basketball player who was good enough to start for most of his four seasons, pivotal seasons as the Wildcats blossomed into a national power.

He's a musician, with a video ("Welcome to the Jungle") that has gone mini-viral on YouTube and another one ("302") about to drop this week.

He's an artist, a performer who is packing the club scene in New York, people responding to his music and his message.

He's a businessman, a manager at a world-renowned fashion retailer. And he happens to be gay.

"I'm trying to have a voice, and I want that voice to reach as many people as it can," he said. "I mean, look at me. I'm black. I'm gay. I'm like a quadruple minority, and I feel like a little piece of me resides in everybody. Maybe there's a kid out there who doesn't think he's OK, and he can look at me and say, 'OK, he played college basketball. He went overseas. He has a music career and now he's living his life. Now he's who he wants to be and he's happy and confident and comfortable.' It's my responsibility to talk about that."

Sheridan says he was out to teammates and dated guys while he was at Villanova. "He wasn't out publicly in college, he didn't entirely hide, either. ... There was plenty of stereotypical ammunition and rumor mill gossip to load up opposing fans."

"I remember at some games, especially Saint Joe's games, they were unreal," said Sheridan, recalling taunts about specific homosexual acts. "At first, I was like, 'My grandma is sitting right there,'" Sheridan said. "And as a human being you feel it when people say nasty things. But then I thought, 'That's just stupid. If you were gay, you'd like to do [those things], too."

The taunting and hostility from fans—and possibly from fellow players—surely speaks to why so few premier athletes are willing to publicly come out. "Sheridan [graduated] four years ago [and] is only the second former Division 1 male basketball player to publicly come out of the closet as gay," reports Outsports. "John Amaechi was the first. Former Long Beach State 49er Travon Free previously came out as bisexual."

Will didn't hide it, so to those of us who know of him...it's no shock. What I'm waiting for is a couple of the major athletes who are/were pretty much "ho's" to finally admit it. It's not necessary to me, but it would be a relief for them. It has to be stressful living such a public double life.

Fantastic. Just goes to show you there's so many of us out there in so many different arenas (lol) who have to hide our sexuality for whatever reason. I just hope these recent high profile coming out stories can serve as an inspiration to those similarly conflicted. Sometimes it just takes one. Also what I find so fascinating about Mr Sheridan's story is that none of his teammates flipped out even though he was out to them.

This is truly amazing. Let us not forgot the vast majority of Black men are not gay and the vast majority of Black gay men are not TV news anchors or celebrated basketball players. Even so, Will and Lemon are very brave, courageous and seemingly wonderful examples for us all. Hat off to them.

This dude is hotttt in person, and a great entertainer, he MC'ed a showing at a local art gallery in Newark recently and he was on fire! He had the crowd in a great mood, his music and energy were explosive, and yeah, he was tall eye candy.

Great interview, love his multifacetedness. I can bang a tennis racquet but can't hoop to save my life, Will, teach me baby!

rod: you outdid yourself these last couple of days - there's some hopeful news out there and as usual some hot pix (that brazilian dude is spectacular lol). reading the will sheridan story on espn.com was a real pleasure, just nice all around. not everything was easy, but things are working out nicely for him, a truly inspirational story of teamwork and family. thanks for keeping us informed, rod!